Thursday, May 19, 2011

Watch out for the Moose! Birthday Trip to New Brunswick - May 2011

Watch out for the MOOSE!
~ Birthday Trip to New Brunswick ~
May 2011

Fresh lobster from Billy's Seafood Company in
Saint Johns, New Brunswick
I love Canada and one of my favourite places to visit is New Brunswick.  Not only are my two very best friends in the world living in Fredricton but New Brunswick is also a nature lover's paradise. 

Actually, I can't go on enough about New Brunswick.  I love the beautiful trails along the Bay of Fundy, the rugged landscape, the friendly people and especially the mouth watering sea food!  Fresh scallops wrapped in bacon, lobster soaked in butter, wild blueberries and the rustic musky ferns bursting with woody flavours... delicious!




And I shall call you "Bob"!

 Here are some pics from the Fundy Trail. The rain stopped just long enough for a nice hike.  Clark loved it!  Although by the end, you will see... he was ready for a long nap! 











Sunday I decided to check out Fredricton.  Imagine my surpise when I passed a Scuba shop and it was OPEN!  Hallelujah!  For those who have never been out east, the shops have short hours or no hours on Sundays.  Furthermore, I just didn't expect a scuba shop!  For my birthday, I treated myself to a long chat with the SurfnSCUBA owner Patrick Watt - who, incidentally knows a friend of mine back in Ottawa!  We chatted about diving in Barbados, and his latest trip to Jamaica and how it compared to the Dominican Republic and Mexico and we also chatted about local diving - I can't wait to come back when the weather warms up!  As a treat, I bought a new titanium dive knife and a book on North American ocean life.  Very exciting :). 


Check out SurfnSCUBA on Facebook!


Shop SurfnSCUA here!


Monday I was on my own and had to get out of the house and the real estate agent was coming by with some potential buyers.  The weather was terrible.  Rain, rain, more rain and if that wasn't bad enough - just a little more rain!  Nevertheless, the true Canadian that I am, Clark and I kitted up and braved the weather.  We decided to take a round-about route on our way to find a lobster pen.  So, we headed to St. Andrews which is a lovely town.  There was not much to do as tourist season hadn't quite started yet.  However, I did find some great new additions for my jewellery display including a Mermaid, 2 frogs holding up tiny platters and a huge iron frog prince. (Pictures to come!)


From there, we headed to New River Beach with eyes peeled for MacKay's Wild Blueberry Stand which I might mention has the BEST blueberry pies on the planet!  Don't miss it on your next trip to the east coast - I promise it's worth the drive!


McKay’s Blueberries - Russell & Bonnie Weir
46 McKay Loop Road, Pennfield, New Brunswick

A word from the wise when you are travelling through New Brunswick. The further east you travel, the more time warps into a never ending phase of "just up the road, not far..."  When you ask, "How far do you think? 10 minutes, 20 minutes, an hour?" without fail, people will say "Not far, kinda far, not too far, about 20 minutes".  For fun, you can see how many 20 minute intervals until it works.  For me, it was 3 intervals before I finally figured I had missed the park.  Then - lo and behold - there was the New River Beach exit! 

I had read on the Odyssey Sea Glass website that New River Beach was a treasure trove of sea glass.  I was very excited to hunt the shorelines and replenish my stock of sea glass.  However, in this case, the reviews on Odyssey could not be further from reality. 

While New River Beach is breathtakingly beautiful, it's got zilch for beach combers like me!  Clark on the other hand had a blast getting covered in sand, mud and water.


Eventually, we were back in the car and headed to Saint John's for some fresh lobster! 

With some effort, we eventually found Billy's Seafood Company. 


The staff at Billy's Seafood Company was awesome!  They let me pick out some lovely lobster and even let me take pictures!


After a lovely trip, it was time to pack up the car and head home. Thankfully, my friends had given me a gift card for Irving Gas.  Irving gas stations are EVERYwhere in New Brunswick.  I chose premium or as they call it "super clean".  I had hoped it would get me better milleage however I was in a hurry to get home so... without mentioning my speed let's just say I burned through that gift card in record time!

If you are planning on vising this fine province - don't forget to watch out for the Moose!  Scan right, left, right, left, right, left for about 6 hours or until you go cross-eyed! I couldn't help but be reminded of my time in Africa.  Going for a walk in the bush, my eyes were peeled on the earth beneath my feet.  Scan right, left, right, left, right, left so that you don't step on a snake - just make sure to look up once in awhile so that you don't bump into a hippo!  That was the advice my good friends Kathy and David gave me when I visited their place "Shakawe Lodge" on the Okavanga Delta a few years back.  Use the same system when driving through New Brunswick... Right, left, right, left, right, left....

New Brunswick - gotta love it!






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